Kyle Rittenhouse Trial

[jmccracky]

(11-04-2021, 07:43 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: You're confused because of the way right and left are defined in modern American politics. It would blow your mind to realize that gun control is a conservative policy when viewed through the lens of the original and modern dilemmas of politics. Gun control promotes inequality, oppressive governments, and is quite frankly anti-democratic. The ability for the state to strip you of your rights for criminal activity is also a conservative position, which has been moved away from conservatism through ideas like jury trials, innocent until proven guilty, etc.

Not even joking, the ability for someone to defend themselves from others using a firearm like Rittenhouse did is a progressive ideal. But because the majority of Americans don't actually hold a political ideology and instead vote partisan while only forming ad hoc opinions about policy positions we have the completely ****** up view of where these things lie on the spectrum. But this is something I rail on about every once in a while and everyone ignores it or forgets about it until something like this comes up.

I'm a social democrat, coming pretty damn close to democratic socialist these days. This means I'm more leftist than either of our two political parties and, quite frankly, my positions go further left than Bernie or "the Squad." I am what Republicans think the Democratic party is being guided by even though they are center-right, centrist on a good day. I'm a big fan of Karl Marx and John Brown (but not those Soviet ***** that were just authoritarians using the work of Marx to justify their own brand of oppression). My pistol case has a sticker on it that says "this machine makes folk music" and this one is on the other side of it:



All of this is to say, don't confuse the argument over gun rights, the right to self-defense, or a distrust of our criminal justice system into being a right and left disagreement. Both sides have people that will pay lip service to the idea. The left will be quick to think a person of color is being railroaded but won't think the same in a situation like Rittenhouse, and vice versa for some folks on the right (you know, the types with a "no step on snek" sticker next to a think blue line flag). There is no ideological consistency for those folks, but there are people on both sides that are very much onto the same ideas.

And before anyone gets the wrong idea. I'm not anti-police, I'm not bashing SSF. My position is that the system is ****** up. There are good cops and bad cops, just like in every profession, and most of them are just out there trying to do their best for the community. I have a problem with the justice system and the way it interacts with the citizenry. I have a problem with the way our police are trained in some places to consider the citizens they have sworn to protect and serve as enemy combatants. I have a problem with the systems...and some of the people because they suck, but that's on an individual basis and not a blanket statement.

I don't know why I got to wordy, tonight.

If I could rep this post a million times, I would.